Sometime during the late 1950s, mankind has achieved the capability of manned space flight and built “The Wheel,” a space station in orbit 1,075 miles above the Earth. From The Wheel, an advanced spaceship is now being launched to distant Mars under the command of Colonel Samuel T. Merritt. Along for the ride are his son Captain Barney, a few crew members, a disgruntled stowaway, a threadbare Bible and … a .45 pistol. I got a bad feeling ‘bout this.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded $112,679 to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for an evaluation project called PACE (Promoting and Advancing Civic Engagement). The project, which starts December 1, 2014, will examine how the interface of research and education in the Museum’s Nature Research Center (NRC) combine to give visitors a holistic learning experience about the nature and process of ongoing science research.

A newly discovered hadrosaur, named Rhinorex condrupus by paleontologists from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Brigham Young University, lived in what is now Utah approximately 75 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period.